For this week’s round table we discuss our more painful experiences in the watch game so far, with the question:
‘What are your biggest watch regrets?’
Chris:
Regrets… I have a few (and there is a link there, but more in that later).
I rarely dwell, but the fact I didn’t pull the trigger on this one haunts me above all others….
Montblanc Timewalker Southern Hemispheres Yes it’s not a true GMT, and yes, its focus is on the Southern Hemisphere when I live in the North, but that’s kind of the appeal.
It wears lovely, and it’s a smart affair.
Anyway, it’s the equivalent of 3am UK time, I’m in Beijing Airport departure lounge on my way back from Thailand. I’ve spent the arse-end of December 2017 and most of January volunteering at various wildlife sanctuaries and I’m tired, battered and very jet-lagged right about now. It’s -3*C outside, and the air conditioning is on full blast, meaning it’s barely 3*C inside, and I’m in shorts, flip-flops, and 3 t-shirts.
We’re in the Montblanc boutique, I’ve just spent hours in Bvlgari, Chopard and Gucci and the wife is close to starting an international incident as Stockholm Syndrome hasn’t yet kicked in. We’re both starving as the last flight had no food and it will be at least 10 hours until Air China might feed us, and nowhere is serving anything remotely vegan. The wife says I should buy it, I have the credit card in my hand, and be it hunger, cold, tiredness, pain, or whatever, I put the watch back on the tray and my wallet back in my shorts, and I say “not today Satan”.
The wife looks at me like I’ve just told her I’m dying, and then with disgust like she wished I told her I’m dying… at least that would make some sense.
In between the walk from Montblanc to the umpteenth visit to Starbucks, she then rattles through all the other stages of grief in quick succession but stops at anger, hard-resets, and never gets to pleading.
The only thing frostier than the mood was the ground on the concourse outside.
I had failed, on so many levels, and as a result, as some sort of cosmic punishment to be metered out onto such a wretched beast such as myself, these b*stards are not easy to find.
Greg:
This took me a minute to think about. I am known for my impeccable taste and my analytical mind. With those two attributes I should rarely experience disappointment, let alone regret.
A few years ago, I had a handful of perfectly pedestrian quartz watches, nothing fancy. For trial and important court appearances I relied on my two gold vintage watches. My favorite, an Omega Seamaster DeVille, was a watch that I had worn as a daily for nearly eight years.
The Omega began to falter and start a cycle of trips to the watch maker. Finally, in a trial in another part of the state it quit and the strap on the Hamilton malfunctioned. I was nearly watch-less. I started to look for watches to fill that particular gap. You know what happens when you search for watches. You get ads for watches.
Late at night, with nothing to lose I ordered a Stauer TimeMaster Piezo.
It was an abomination.
1970’s “C” style case in a gold tone, painted Breguet hands, Roman numerals, all on what could charitably be called a strap that looked like leather. It proudly boasted 3 ATM on the dial.
The Omega and Hamilton both had to go into the shop. My other watches batteries failed. I was left with a gold tone monstrosity. I had to wear it on and off for months.
Later, it sat in my desk as an emergency wear if something malfunctioned. I regret the failure of imagination. I could have had a perfectly acceptable Timex, Citizen, Seiko, or Bulova. At least I only paid $29.95.
Kaysia:
My three biggest watch regrets came in quick succession, all in the space of 2 weeks before Christmas 2021.
My husband was moderately into watches around that time and was mourning the fact that he’d recently had his favourite titanium chronograph nicked while at the gym. I decided I was going to surprise him with a new watch for Christmas.
As a non-watch enthusiast at the time, with a budget of £250 (which felt like an absolute tonne of money) and two weeks to spare before Christmas, I did what anyone else in the UK would do and headed off to H.Samuels.
In my head my only criteria was ‘something special’.
I came out with this…
At the time: Special = gold + ‘dials which mean god knows what’
I got it home, looked at it again and remembered my husband isn’t actually a rapper from the ’80’s or a pimp from the ’90’s.
His style is less this…
And more this …
10 days till Christmas and I can’t get back to H.Samuels for 3 days.
S***.
So, I look online and choose a watch which I feel still looks nice, but is a bit more subdued and organise to swap the Citizen for this Bulova….
By this point I had started to do a bit of research into watches and Bulova was a brand you could pick up from H.Samuel which had some heritage.
So 3 days pass and I go return watch number one and pick up watch number two. Initially, in the shop, I felt good about watch number two.
I had 7 days till Christmas, so I just had to crack on and buy it. But when I got it home, I was like…
Still a watch that would be massively overstated for my other half.
F***.
2 days pass till I can get back to H. Samuels and the woman who keeps dealing with all my returned watches is starting to look like she could do without my BS when she has her own bloody Christmas shopping to do.
So I do one last circuit around the shop and decide I’m just not going to be able to get him what I think he will like unless I throw money at the problem. So that’s what I do.
Budget upped and I buy him this…
Now I LOVED this watch. It looks beautiful and special, but isn’t too austentacious. The titanium and gold is just lovely.
I was so happy.
Christmas comes and goes and we reach the time when the ‘free returns’ period for the watch is coming to it’s end…
My husband decides to return the watch for a refund. It’s ‘Too nice for me’ he says.
Honestly, I don’t feel bad. I have a hard enough time trying to choose watches for myself, so I will never again presume to try to buy a watch for anyone else.
He went on to use the money to buy, and subsequently return or sell, two different Ball watches and a Frederick Constant, and the money is currently floating around his collection split between a Nivada, a Bulova and a smart watch.
The biggest negative of this story is that all the watch research in those 2 weeks before Christmas got me well and truly hooked on the hobby myself.
I should have just bought him a Seiko.
The Escapement Room 